Former Gov. George Pataki, who led the Empire State through the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and its aftermath, revealed he is fighting lung disease related to his exposure at Manhattan’s ground zero.
Pataki, a Republican who served between 1995 and 2006, told The Post in an exclusive interview that he suffers from restrictive airway disease that stems from his exposure to toxins at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan.
He was diagnosed with the condition over the last five years, he said.
“I just look at it as I’m one of the lucky ones,” Pataki told The Post, humbly deflecting questions about his condition.
“You know, 25 years later, I feel great. I have this minor residual impact from that time. But compared to so many others, I consider myself very lucky,” he said.
A rep for former Big Apple Mayor Rudy Giuliani confirmed that the politician-turned Trump attorney had also been diagnosed with restrictive airway disease after he landed in the hospital in critical condition with a case of pneumonia earlier this year.
The disease, caused by toxic dust and the fine particulate matter that filled the air in southern Manhattan after the towers fell, makes more common illnesses such as the flu particularly dangerous.
Pataki, who had never before revealed his condition, continued pointing the spotlight to those working around him at the time, especially the first responders and other public servants who flocked to lower Manhattan to rebuild after Islamic terrorists intentionally crashed highjacked commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center, causing them to collapse.
“The people who were with me at ground zero over and over for months after those attacks, many of them have serious illnesses, far more serious than anything I might be experiencing,” Pataki said, noting that he has not been diagnosed with cancer related to ground zero.
Pataki, who previously served in the state Senate and as mayor of the Westchester County city of Peekskill, was the last Republican to win statewide office in New York.
He recently drew headlines when he suggested democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani should consider staying away from the remembrance ceremony at ground zero unless he changes course and condemns the antisemitic slogan “globalize the intifada.”
Mamdani, a Muslim and harsh critic of Israel, has previously defended use of the statement, saying disagrees the rallying cry is an incitement of violence against Jews. The American Jewish Committee says the phrase calls for “rising up” against Israel.
Pataki also suggested Mamdani should made a clean break from commentators who praise the attacks like left-wing superstar Hasan Piker.
“If he says he will have nothing to do with Hasan Piker, and if he says he will condemn the statement, ‘globalize the intifada,’ then I would have no problem with him being here,” Pataki told The Post.
But he’s not optimistic that will happen before Friday.
“Out of respect for those who died and out of the respect for their families and the first responders, he should make the decision not to go,” Pataki said.
Still, Pataki said that the ceremony should be void of politics and should “go off without any disruption.”
“I think basically just ignoring his presence might be the best,” Pataki said.
